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SMT Boardgame Kickstarter Smells Like Suspicious Fish

There's an SMT boardgame. Curb your enthusiasm, you shouldn't back it. And if you did, lower your pledge to like a buck until they clear things up, because as it stands it seems like an incredibly suspect product.

Checking through the Kickstarter comments and Japanese Tweets about the boardgame makes the entire thing seem poorly planned at best. I'll summarize as best I can;

The designer is incredibly infamous in the boardgame community

Naoki Matsunaga, a self-described "board game sommelier", is the designer. You'll find tweets lamenting that "the board game sommelier is involved". Why is he so hated? This thread goes into detail: co_boze on twitter. Part of it is they bashed Werewolf over one game they saw of it, another is they took on a kind of public-face role for boardgames appearing on late night TV shows to talk about them in ways that annoyed boardgamers. They seem to have designed a boardgame based on "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" which ripped off Sid Sackson's 'I'm the Boss". But it's what co_boze talks about next that's really bizarre. The game was apparently banned from most board game cafes and playing spaces. Seminars where people could play the game were hosted, but the venues that hosted these seminars all closed down.

If you keep looking through comments, you start finding claims that his company does multi-level marketing (ie pyramid schemes). To be honest, I don't know if this is true. But even if it isn't, it is really not hard to find people who know of this guy and would really really really REALLY prefer he was not involved.

"Oh fuck, it's THIS guy" is not a reaction that inspires confidence

2. Questionable development and presentation issues.

A regular collaborator with Atlus recently tweeted "The use of AI in Atlus works or derivative works is stictly prohibited." He responded to a reply asking if this was about a board game.

The staff running the SMT BG Kickstarter later clarified the actual -game- wouldn't use AI graphics... but from the looks of it, the promotional materials do.

Dig that... generic metal pipe aesthetic. Nothing screams MegaTen like black plumbing to nowhere.

In totally unrelated news, a board game manufacturer recently tweeted that a Kickstarter used their name without permission, and they're not sure why.

Quote tweets on the post would suggest it was the SMT board game. The comment they are loosely referring to is this:

In a follow-up post, they do specify "The product figures will be made of PVC." and "We will be manufacturing the games in partnership with a factory in China that has a proven track record... " "Figure director Kimura Yuzuru has over 10 years of experience..." and other boring development stuff that I have no issue with. What I do have issue with is how they can say things like they're "considering" which manufacturer to use and namedropping other companies that they're unrelated with. (While I was typing this post, they posted an update that clarified the CMON issue and literally nothing else: here.)

The boardgame is being presented with machine translated English printed on the same cards as the Japanese. But the actual game will have a translator check everything.

they hire translators to localize all game content

Additionally, there was a week long radio silence on the Kickstarter. For reference, Kickstarters are normally very active with the project planners dropping updates, responding to feedback and clearing up any concerns.

Some of the concerns were "How does the game actually play?", a question that would be best answered by dropping a rulebook for people to look at, or better yet showing them an entire run of the game. The SMT BG Kickstarter has boldly chosen neither. Devs have commented the game is on Version 11 and plays well, which makes it strange that they can't share any of it with anyone else.

Actually, when you compare this to how most Kickstarters are run, it becomes very clear the SMT BG Kickstarter is, uh, kinda failing in all possible regards. The first Backer Goal is "Jack Frost Dice" at 2000 backers (not funds raised, BACKERS). Despite getting 300%(!!!) of the initial pledge needed, there are no bonuses or unlocks.

Mind, this lack of information comes after they already delayed the start to supposedly improve Backer Goals and other aspects.

There aren't a shortage of issues - it's ICREA's first boardgame (but not their first tango with SMT; they made the SMT30th Logo, for instance.) The timeline seems totally wack. The staff have been incredibly slow to respond. Cards with tiny font and two languages printed on them. Etc, etc. Maybe individually these issues wouldn't be too concerning. But all of them combined make the product seem incompetently run at best, and at worst an actual scam.

I'm hardly a big influencer in the SMT scene (my biggest contribution is when that fucking succubus gif gets 36k likes on Twitter every 5 months) but I haven't seen any English speaking sources discuss this in detail, when there really should be at least some noise about all of this. Still. if just one of you end up saving 600 bucks on what ends up being a trashfire carcrash project because of this post, then that'll have made the past 30 minutes of typing this shit worth it.

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doodley boodley, in the fes artstyle kinda.

I also fucked ryuji up shhhh

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happy birthday to HER

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damn, I wish they really made Episode Strega :(

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pretty scary, huh?

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sees au

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Your affection. [Read ID]

might make an animatic out of this BUT!! here's more of my brain blasted insanities. Rambles of "I<3U" AU below here ↓

What began as a simple one off story about a living digital consciousness inside a video game to be implemented on Persona 4, and their unused game files hidden behind folders, left to collect dust. But it still remains, waiting for anyone to discover it.

I can't put on the details on how Yosuke even gained sentience, but I can tell you now that this AU simply took place on Persona 4 Vanilla. (Not golden. As much as it has its own content I will be sticking with its roots. So yes, Yosuke didn't own/bought a motorcycle. That event never happened.) Hanamura's odd behavior only happened when the Player bought the game with a specific player ID. So their gameplay experience will be on their perspective of how this one character manages to know, everything about them. Also slightly close to creepypastas which, I loved. Huhu.

This can be seen as a Yume or Souyo ship perspective so pick your poison

Now it's time for Yosuke's unique behavior towards the player when they progress the game. His depraved ass was already set to go off when the player was given the option to pick miscellaneous interactions between the characters, mostly to follow up Yosuke's questions or any one of the investigation team to mention anything about Yosuke. The options being "What kind of girls do you prefer?", "Looking great [insert name]" or the famous "Which ones are you looking forward to see in a swimsuit"

If you're like me and didn't indulge on having a romantic subchoice to any of the members, that's where it triggers the start of a few bugs and glitches manifested behind the scenes, fuelling the code until it couldn't automatically run on itself, but from something else manually taking over. Manifesting the game to not coordinate with its ordered storyline, changing the system to be primarily more unique than others.

When Yosuke only appears for a few days on the weekend, suddenly his model would stand in position to a day that he was not meant to show up. He was meant to show up on a Sunday. So why was he here out in daylight on a Saturday? Other strange occurrences are if whenever Yosuke was on scene, closeups and corrupted texts would come in to reach out to the Player, sending a message that only he and the other side of the screen can see.

Now his normal dialogue never wound up to show from the screen, simply replaced with vague, short-ended questions asking them if "Are you there?" "Can you hear me?" "I can't see you, but I can still hear your voice." "Will you show me someday?" That last part was not a suggestion. Really demanding, hard for him to know he'll be left alone all over again if the Player turns off their game, aw :( And he keeps remembering the shit I gave to you even when I didn't need some of them.

So that's it? I think??? 😭 There will be more, later I'm rlly tired.

until then, have what's served on this 4 stat Yelp restaurant.

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New au idea: persona 4 but Inaba is quite literally, basically Night Vale with all it's oddities

instead of a radio station Inaba has a TV Station (the only other channel is the midnight channel).

Yu is sent to Inaba after his mom could find literally no one else to take him in for the year. so she called up her brother and sent yu to her hometown hoping desperately that the year there would not turn him weird.

He took the the weirdness of the town like a fish to water.

Yosuke becomes friends with Yu because he knows about the outside world and also takes the title of new guy from him. (He has been here for over a year(? Time is weird in Inaba)) Sometimes he gets possessed by the Junes to work there in the night.

Chie became friends with Yu cause she was part of the Summer reading program in the last year, and is determined to protect "the new guy" from the Librarians. Plus she's already friends with Yosuke and he's friends with Yu. So might as well.

The amagi inn is open though they are only taking ghost customers at this time. miss Yamano is too busy enjoying the inn's hot springs to answer Dojima's question on if she was murdered or just really desperate to get a reservation at the inn.

Kanji's dolls may or may not be alive. we know they are there and they move when we aren't looking. but they also don't breathe and that seems very important to life

Teddie, does not legally exist. Cause everyone knows that there is no such thing as bears.

Rise, as a native to Inaba, is naturally weird. Even before her idol career, she was quite famous for being the first person in Inaba to open their 5th eye. Which comes with the side effect of occasionally floating in the air and giving hyper-specific prophecies to random people. It's much more dramatic in Inaba than elsewhere.

(Also this is an au where Yu is romantic partners with both Yosuke and Rise. Polyamory ftw)

Naoto is not having too much of a fun time in Inaba. She came in to investigate some murders, and he came out with a realization of his funky gender, friends, government mandated eldritch entity (which is probably a persona), and a broken worldview of what she had previously thought was possible.

Dojima is part of the Sheriff's Known Police. And by part of I mean one of two members (the other is Adachi). the Sheriff's known police are also the only ones (not including the IT) that are investigating the murders/ kidnappings. And not because people are dying, but because the killer/kidnapper didn't submit the proper paperwork.

Nanako still gets letters from her mom even if she still can't really meet her. Not because Nanako's mom is dead. No, it's because Nanako's Mom is an Angel, which of course don't exist. (Though Dojima is looking for concrete evidence to submit to the city council that they do)

Everyone knows about izanami's presence. she isn't a threat. however he is a notorious pronoun thief and citizens will often wake up and find that she has stolen [REDACTED] pronouns in the night. they'll give them back the next night by taping the pronouns to the victim's door. someone else can steal the pronouns at that point though. Izanami is a menace.

Igor, or as he's better known, the weird old guy who lives in the blue door we all know is there even if we can't see it, is wanted by the Sheriff's secret police for illegal entity dealing. the sheriff's secret police are only thwarted by the fact that they cannot see the door and thus cannot find the knob to open it.

Junes is basically Strexcorp. either buying or running out local competition. Junes is also the final boss of p4 in this au, as again Izanami is simply a menace.

Yu and Marie both take over the role of TV presenter by the end of the year. They switch out depending upon if one of them's busy. This allows Yu to leave Inaba if he wants to. The previous presenter most likely died during Junes' temporary take over of Inaba.

Also the TV station has a cat. About 9 of it actually. 9 of the exact same cat. Yu and Rise take one of the copies with them when they have to leave as all the versions of the station cat are connected and part of a hivemind and a very effective method of communication into Inaba.

I think that's all I have right now? So I'll just leave now. *closes the door quietly behind me.*

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Adachi stuff from Persona Stalker Club episode 5

Adachi’s voice actor Mitsuaki Madono does shows up as episode 5’s special guest, though, and they share a few Adachi facts, such as one fan mentioning that Adachi’s hobby is to do maintenance on his revolver gun, but as it turns out, since he can’t take home the one he owns, he actually likes to do maintenance on model guns at home.

One fan asks if Adachi is a smoker, since there was that one scene, where he’s shown with a lighter in his pocket. Madono points out that he is never shown smoking, but as it turns out, it’s something he keeps with him at all times to light Dojima’s cigarettes.

While Persona Stalker Club got a bunch of Adachi questions, one of the most common one was for Madono, and whether he had any difficulties when taking on the role of Adachi. According to Madono, it’s not that Adachi was difficult, but he saw Adachi as faulty character, which Madono sees as his best trait, and made it really fun for him to portray, due to his love of such characters.

He also mentions that he feels he can relate with Adachi more as an adult, and that he feels other people would probably be able to relate more as they grow older and understand what it’s like being in the common workplace.

Another fan notes that Adachi was always buying a bunch of cabbage, and asks what kind of food he makes with it, or if he can even cook in the first place. According to Atlus, he likes to slice it up with a side of mayonnaise and miso, and have it on the side with beer.

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god i have so many ideas for fangames and aus and art and i cant do ANY of them.

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p3 au where. Where the second and third years are all anti shadow weapons and aigis is a human (i have a general name i use for human!aigis when i incorporate her - shuka aikawa, with 'aigis' being a portmanteau nickname of aikawa and aegis).

In a way like. She helps them how to live in humanity instead of adjacent to it. They start out as pretty much the same blank slate personality and dont quite develop that much - until aigis is with them. Through her, they begin to develop their own personalities (which are similar but never quite like canon), likes, dislikes, and eventually start to seek friendships beyond their group, and fall in love.

below the cut is how i handle plot stuff

october 4th is basically shinjiro suffering critical damage to like... all of his system as a Robot. Hes gone for good - his systems and circuits can be replaced but the "shinjiro" that developed alongside the team, he is gone gone.

makoto's sacrifice.... they have remnants of his chassis (which was largely destroyed in his sacrifice to stop nyx) but simply cannot bring it to themselves to rebuild. it feels like the equivalent of desecrating a corpse for them

not shore how to incorporate ikutsuki's betrayal.

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constantly thinking about weird fucked up persona aus but mostly on the brain rn is p3/4 stuff. like for one a swap with the IT and SEES (like location and premise and all that) would be crazy but for reasons that I'll elaborate on in the tags it's not perfect. but what IS crazy to me and had been rotating in my brain is. the concept of SEES having shadows.

for a while I've been thinking of an au where the answer features their shadows. granted I haven't played/watched the answer but the concept is certainly really insane because the characters do have enough issues for it to be crazy. even by that time. there'd be general overarching themes of grief and loss between them all but also individual things (that some of them do mostly get over but still. this would be insane mid-game too) -- junpei's jealousy, akihiko's need to not lose anyone ever again, mitsuru's guilt and feeling like she has to make up for the kirijo group's shortcomings, etc. would be a hell of a time and I'd love to write this concept if I can thinknof things. talk to me abt ur thoughts on p3 characters having p4 esque shadows im thinking

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Imagine a swap p3 au where the MC joins Strega, who fight the dark hour not to stop it but to learn more about themselves, and S.E.E.S is opposing them because Mitsuru, their leader, is going against her father's wishes. At first its just Akihiko and Shinjiro, but she rescues more Persona users before the Kirijo group can get their hands on them as time passes. However, some do not trust her (Yukari, for example), and leave to join Strega.

Its just Strega as the good guys and SEES as the bad guys but like- Idk man, I'm having a fucking big brain moment-

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I make myself laugh on occasions

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Persona 3 Arcana Swap

Just a quick note, Koromaru is pretty much the same because I have no clue how to really change the storyline of a dog.

Name: Shinjiro Aragaki

Arcana: Fool

Description:

Has the power of the wildcard. Shinjiro is a quiet and reserved young man who mostly prefers to keep to himself. He was childhood friends with Akihiko and Miki, often playing around with them after school and pulling pranks together. However ten years ago, Shinjiro lost both of his parents in the Moonlight Bridge incident and immediately closed himself off. He was quickly passed off to his aunt as he needed a new legal guardian, however they quickly discovered that his aunt just wasn't equipped to take care of a child. After this he was passed around from family member to family member until he was accepted into Gekkoukan and moved into the dorms. Due to the constant moving, Shinjiro was never able to properly form any friendships or come to terms with his loss, leading to him developing a very apathetic view on life, not really caring what happens one way or the other. It's not until he joins SEES, learns about their objective and rekindles his old friendship with Aki that he begins to open his eyes and appreciate everything around him.

Name: Mitsuru Kirijo

Arcana: Magician

Description:

A cheerful and friendly girl in Shinjiro's class. Mitsuru is the first of Shinjiro's classmates to welcome him to Gekkoukan. She and Akihiko have known each other since middle school so they are quite close despite their occasional bickering. Mitsuru joins SEES shortly after Shinjiro after Minako discovers her during the Dark Hour and realises she has the potential. While she can be a little clumsy or awkward at times, Mitsuru always manages to say the right thing at the right time, so she's often in charge of raising the morale of the group when things are looking dire. She also can't help but want to help whenever she sees someone who is in trouble but denies any help from anyone, despite how people often describe this trait of hers as annoying. Thanks to this, she's insistent on helping Yukari despite her numerous protests.

Name: Akihiko Sanada

Arcana: Lovers

Description:

Shinjiro's classmate and close friend. The two of them knew each other as children but lost contact after Shinjiro moved away. While in middle school, Akihiko met Mitsuru and, despite getting a little exasperated by her at times, he respects her way with words and willingness to help others. Akihiko is a newer member of SEES when Shinjiro arrives and is still learning the ropes. He's a little cautious of Aigis due to her family's ties to the Moonlight Bridge incident but still trusts her judgement in battle. Akihiko joined the fight against the shadows because he lost his little sister, Miki, during the incident ten years ago and wants to prevent that from happening to anyone else. Despite the time apart and how much they've changed over the years, Akihiko and Shinjiro's teamwork is as strong as ever.

Name: Minako Arisato

Arcana: Emperor

Description:

One of the original members of SEES. Minako is a spunky girl in her third and final year at Gekkoukan High. She is extremely popular with her classmates due to her prowess in the kickboxing club, winning tournament after tournament. She is one of the powerhouses of the group and tends to charge into battle head first without thinking, much to Aigis' dismay. She lost her parents as a child and was raised in an orphanage with her twin brother. Thanks to this experience, she feels as though she has a duty to protect those younger than her. This is both a good thing and a bad thing, as it often leads to her prioritising others' needs over her own. Due to an event that occurred a few years ago, her relationship with her brother has soured and, despite her best efforts, it shows no signs of improving.

Name: Aigis

Arcana: Empress

Description:

One of the original members of SEES. Aigis is an intelligent and focused girl in her third and final year at Gekkoukan High. She is admired by the majority of the student body, due to her position as the student council president and her reputation of running the school better than the principal ever could. Her classmates like to joke that she's like a robot with how well she can calculate how events will turn out and plan accordingly. Aigis is the strategist of SEES and acts as the de facto leader whenever Ikutsuki isn't around to give orders. Aigis fights shadows due to a sense of guilt as it was her family and their senseless actions that led to the Dark Hour's creation; however, while she won't admit it, she can't help but feel bitter towards her grandfather for making her and her father clean up after his mistakes. Aigis is a nickname given to her by her classmates that everyone else picked up… after three years of calling her that no one can really remember her real name anymore. Not that she cares.

Name: Ken Amada

Arcana: Priestess

Description:

A young boy currently attending Gekkoukan Elementary. Ken is a quiet, polite boy who is unfortunately getting bullied by some of his classmates. SEES learns about him through Ikutsuki mentioning he has the potential, however they first meet when they save him from Tartarus after his bullies 'played a prank' on him and locked him in the Gekkoukan High gym overnight. Their original intent was just to get him in trouble for trespassing in the highschool overnight. After this, Minako immediately latched onto him as a big sister figure and began teaching him self defence, just in case those bullies ever tried to bother him again. Ken is extremely intelligent and talented with technology, managing to modify his laptop and create entire programs by himself, despite his age. This causes him to develop a large interest in Fuuka, desperately wanting to figure out how her systems function. Fuuka oftens worried that he may try to dismantle her at some point in his quest for knowledge but Ken would never go that far. Ken is a big fan of Featherman and finds this whole persona user thing very exciting due to the similarities to the show. He especially likes how his navigation abilities essentially make him the guy in the chair for the rest of the group.

Name: Fuuka Yamagishi

Arcana: Aeon

Description:

An anti shadow weapon developed by Ikutsuki's team of scientists. Her appearance was based on the daughter of one of the engineers who unfortunately passed away in the Moonlight Bridge incident ten years ago. Fuuka starts off very rigid and mission oriented, with an odd fixation on supporting Shinjiro, however the more she accompanies the rest of SEES, the more she begins to develop her own personality. She gains an interest in flowers and cooking; she tends to a lovely garden on the dorm rooftop that everyone is happy to help out in, however she lacks any kind of talent for cooking, leading to the rest of the group feeling intense terror whenever she is in the kitchen. Shinjiro and Minato are trying their best to teach her, however neither of them are having much luck. Her codename from her creators is Oracle.

Name: Junpei Iori

Arcana: Hermit

Description:

The owner of Koromaru and a second year in Gekkoukan. Junpei is a friendly guy in the same class as Yukari and Fuuka. His father was in charge of the local shrine and its upkeep, however his father passed away a year ago and Junpei is left to take care of both Koromaru and the shrine. He tries his best to stay on top of everything but the responsibility quickly weighs him down. Junpei has conflicted thoughts on his father as he had a tendency to drink and take out his frustration on Junpei and his mother, which lead to Junpei's mother leaving them making him feel extremely bitter towards the both of them. However Junpei has plenty of fond memories of how happy and proud his father was of their work at the shrine and his mother playing with him at the playground; he desperately wants to hold onto those positive memories, despite everything else. Joining SEES was a blessing for Junpei as now he has a reason to move forward instead of dwelling on the past. And not to mention, now he has a better place for Koromaru to live and plenty of people to help take care of him.

Name: Yukari Takeba

Arcana: Justice

Description:

A standoffish girl in her second year at Gekkoukan. Despite her prickly nature and her often sharp tongue, Yukari is still a very caring girl and eager to help out her peers when they need it. She never used to be so closed off, however a couple of years ago while walking home from an evening out, Yukari's father was killed by a shadowy figure in front of Yukari. This caused her to fall into a depression and begin pushing away those close to her, including her mother. Yukari became resentful as her father's killer wasn't found, however years later she learned that it was a persona that killed her father. Due to this discovery, she has made it her mission to find that persona's user and make them pay. The only piece of information she has to go on is the harp the persona wielded.

Name: Minato Arisato

Arcana: Hierophant

Description:

One of the original members of SEES. Minato is a quiet and soft-spoken boy who prefers to keep to himself and will act aggressively if it makes people leave him alone. He would be in his third year, however he dropped out and ran away from the dorms, despite Minako and Aigis' best attempts to stop him. He lost his parents at a young age and was raised in an orphanage with his twin sister, Minako. However, Minato could never develop the same optimism that Minako has and would often wish he could see their parents again, despite what that may entail. The two of them were inseparable, especially after awakening to their personas and moving into the dorms. Minato was never able to gain full control over his persona like Minako was able to, due to his mindset. This would unfortunately lead to him losing control of it one night and accidentally killing a man who was in the area, in front of his child. This incident riddled him with guilt and made him believe he was dangerous to be around, so he ran away. Minako keeps trying to persuade him to come back but he's terrified of hurting her, so he refuses.

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What if I made a persona 3 AU where the social links & SEES swap places...Arcana Swap but it's for the guys barely anyone cares about....would there be joy....

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AOA finishers!! I only have these two tho and I don't plan on making the others soon.